50km wide comet may hit Mars next year leaving 2km deep crater

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We’ve seen the panic that can be caused by small meteorites hitting Earth recently, and while we don’t want anything bigger taking aim at our planet, I’d love to see a major impact on some other lump of rock within viewing distance. And next year there’s a small chance I may get my wish.

A comet named C/2013 A1 Sliding Spring has been discovered heading in the direction of Mars. It has only been tracked for 74 days, so predicting exactly where it is heading is speculative at best, but at the very least it will travel very close to the red plant and could end up managing a direct hit.

If it does hit, we would be in for quite the spectacle. That’s because the comet measures about 50km in diameter and will be traveling at around 126,000mph when it reaches Mars. A direct hit on the planet’s surface is predicted to generate 2×1010 megatons of energy. The crater left behind would be in the region of 500km in diameter and 2km deep. The Bonneville crater on Mars pictured above is only 210 meters wide and 14 meters deep. The largest known impact crater on Mars is the Hellas Planitia pictured below.

Depending on where it hit, NASA would have to get Curiosity out of the way if it could. Back on Earth we should be able to get some high resolution footage of the comet even if it doesn’t hit due to the Mars orbiters being able to capture it at relatively close range.

Whether it hits or not, the key date is October 19, 2014. On that day C/2013 A1 may pass a few hundred thousand kilometers away from Mars, or it could form the largest planet impact we have ever been able to observe. The last was the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter in 1994, but that only had a 15km diameter and is tiny in comparison.